From left: Ross Donaldson, Chris Shearer, David MacLeod and Eoin Cursitor. Missing from the picture are Duncan Johnston and Tom Eggeling.

Six Orkney cyclists put their fitness to the ultimate test on Sunday as they raced, with 7,000 others, through part of France.

Le Tape du Tour precedes the Tour de France, and gives amateur cyclists the chance to tackle part of the world-famous race course.

Most of the group are competing in the 148-mile road race in aid of Orkney's Macmillan Cancer Relief Fund.

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American sculptor, Tuck Langland has refined the features by making the chin more prominent and the cheeks leaner. The pose has been altered too. The pipe has gone, and in its place the poet is shown with a finger upraised as if saying: "That's the word I wanted".

The amended model went on show on Saturday again.

Police searching for a missing Stromness woman on Friday confirmed that a body was found.

Nicola Brown, 36, was reported missing in Aberdeen on Thursday. Her Volkswagen Beetle car was found in a car park near the river.

Police confirmed that the body of a woman was found on land near the car around midday, but that a name would not be released until a formal identification had taken place.

There do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances.

The ban follows the detection of high levels of amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) toxins in shellfish in the area.

The ban came into effect at 11.30am on Friday.

The Norwegian regional airline Wideroe, a division of Scandinavian Airlines SAS, is operating a six-week programme of two flights a week between

Sumburgh Airport and Oslo until mid-August. The airline is using 50-seat Dash 8 regional turboprop aircraft on the route.

The service, which started last Sunday operates on Sundays And Thursdays.

An aircraft flying to Orkney was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff yesterday.

The Loganair flight, with 17 passengers and three crew, had to turn back 20 minutes after taking off from Edinburgh Airport, after the plane's compass failed.

The plane landed safely shortly before noon.

A Landrover Discovery left the road at Saverock, just outside Kirkwall, on Thursday afternoon. The vehicle was towing a trailer.

The emergency services attended the incident, which occurred around 3.30pm. It is understood that there were no injuries.

Dr John Rae's reputation has been raised in the House of Commons.

Orkney MP Alistair Carmichael raised the matter in an early day motion on Tuesday, calling on MPs to recognise the achievements of the 19th century explorer, in particular his charting of more than 3,000 miles of Arctic coastline and his discovery of the Northwest Passage.

Although most early day motions never get to the debating stage, they attract publicity and are a means of publicising issues.

Official opening for new RSPB hide

The new RSPB Scotland Centenary Loons Hide in Twatt is was officially opened on Thursday night at 7pm.

See also: The Loons and Loch of Banks RSPB Reserve

Battle of the Bands' winners Peter's Finger played their debut gig out of Orkney on Thursday night, at King Tut's in Glasgow.

The band were due to support other up-and-coming acts in what is arguably Scotland's top live music venue.

The band won a photo-shoot, Glasgow gig and recording session at the Fusion's nightclub's first-ever Battle of the Bands competition, sponsored by The Orcadian.

The 14th festival, which this year runs from September 1 to 11, expands on the international theme and brings together contributors from across the globe.

It will open with the dancers and drummers of Sturgeon Lake, Saskatchewan and during the festival, Orkney's connections with the First Nations Indians of Canada, forged in the days of the Hudson's Bay Company, are examined.

The full festival programme will be announced later this month.

Arctic Skua

A catastrophe has hit Orkney's seabird population. Thousands of birds are missing, breeding colonies failing and some usual breeding sites seeing no birds at all.

Eric Meek, of the RSPB, blames a lack of food, caused by the warming of the North Sea. "The summer of 2004 seems destined to go down in history as the worst in living memory for our seabirds," he said.

Arctic terns, arctic skuas, guillemots, kittiewakes and fulmars are all suffering, with numbers drastically down, while all the large arctic tern colonies in the North Isles have already failed.

Orkney has the worst record in Scotland for drink-driving.

Per head of population, the county is home to more people willing to get behind the wheel after downing booze, than anywhere else in the country.

Police said this week that there is no excuse and that drink driving in Orkney will not be tolerated.

Anyone passing Kirkwall pier this morning would have seen two sailing ships docked - the Norwegian training ship Statsraad Lemkuhl and the Sea Cloud II.

The Sea Cloud II sailed for the Fair Isle at 1pm, the Statsraad Lemkuhl sailing home for Bergen at 10am.

Meanwhile, the 188-metre Saga Rose liner is berthed at Hatston today, sailing for Faroe at 5pm.

A man has been reported to the procurator fiscal following a disturbance in Kirkwall in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Police said the male was charged following the incident in Victoria Street at 12.30am.

Inspector David Miller said: "There was a disturbance in Victoria Street, during which a Peugeot motor vehicle was damaged. Following inquiries, one male person has been reported to the procurator fiscal."

The cruise on Monday, July 19, is a charity event, with all proceeds going to the Stromness Shopping Week Committee and RNLI (Stromness Ladies Lifeboat Guild).

A total of 500 tickets are available, during which guests will enjoy refreshments, a finger buffet and traditional Orcadian music.

Tickets are available now from NorthLink's offices in both Kirkwall and Stromness, priced £10 for adults and £5 for concessions.

In response to requests from the public, NHS Orkney have added two extra dates to their have been added to their Service Redesign Consultation programme.

The dates are:

• 27th July, Dounby Community Centre ( large hall) 7.30pm
• 28th July, Flotta Community Hall. 7.30pm

Plans for the radical shake-up of the NHS in Orkney were debated at the second in a series of public meetings in Rousay last night.

The consensus after an evening of heated debate in the island's school, where more than half of the island's population turned out, was that a nurses only medical practice and visiting doctors with a helicopter for emergencies should be workable.

Tonight's consultation is in Eday and begins at 7.30pm.

Archive story: Radical NHS plans unveiled
Click here to download consultation document

A Kirkwall councillor has appealed for his colleagues to work together with NHS Orkney so a new health centre can be created.

Berstane and Work representative Mike Drever made the plea at Tuesday's full council meeting.

Councillor Drever said he felt a new health centre is badly needed in Kirkwall. He added that any new facility should be based near the hospital .

"It's not rocket science. If we are going to build a new health centre in Kirkwall it is logical to build it as near as possible to the Balfour Hospital," he said.

Thirty-nine have successfully applied for grants under the rural stewardship scheme and 12 have been awarded money from the organic aid scheme.

More than £38 million has been approved for rural stewardship and another £3.7 million to help those wanting to farm organically.

Farmers and crofters can apply for annual payments for up to ten years for adopting environmentally friendly farming practices.

Work moving the Groattie Hoose in Kirkwall to its new home in the Tankerness House gardens should start next Monday.

The Groattie Hoose, also known as Gow's Folly, was built in 1730 using ballast from Pirate Gow's ship, the Revenge.

Kirkwall Community Council heard on Monday night that the new owner of the current site, the Orissor Trust, had donated more than £4,700 to help cover the revised tender price of £59,513.84 to move the historic structure.

The total cost of moving it is expected to be just under £77,900.

As expected, Hoy residents turned out in force for Monday night's first meeting in a series of NHS Orkney public consultations following the publication of the document outlining options for the future of Orkney's health services.

Over 100 islanders attended the meeting in the North Walls School, where the proposal to scrap island doctors came in for considerable criticism.

Kirkwall Bay was a hive of activity on Tuesday morning with two cruise liners at anchor.

Together with the 198-metre Europa, was one of the most eyecatching of the visiting vessels, the five-masted Wind Surf.

The Europa sailed for Iceland at 1pm on Tuesday, the Wind Surf at 3pm for Norway.

The man had been on a 36 metre dive on the German cruiser Koln.

The dive boat Sharon Rose administered oxygen to the diver, who was then transferred to the Stromness chamber for treatment. He was discharged at 6.30pm.

Councillors have backed proposals to build a new doctor's surgery in Dounby.

Members at a special meeting of Orkney Islands Council's social services and housing committee approved plans to create the facility adjacent to the new care home - which is due to be completed in February 2005.

Social services director, Mr Harry Garland, told councillors that the plans were a matter of urgency, due to the short amount of time before the care home is due for completion.

Councillors agreed to approve the proposals, so care home residents would not be disturbed by construction work.

Mr Wallace will be accompanied by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) chairman, Dr Jim Hunter and chief executive, Sandy Cumming, along with representatives from Orkney Enterprise, the Carbon Trust, Orkney Islands Council (OIC) and Scottish Enterprise.

The centre, which was initially conceived in 1999, is now fully operational and has secured its first client - Ocean Power Delivery (OPD), designers of Pelamis, the wave energy converter.

The opening will take place on Tuesday, August 10.

Orkney's lifeboats had a busy weekend, helping rescue several vessels in trouble.

Kirkwall lifeboat was called out to a yacht, Legless, which had ran out of fuel off Copinsay. It was escorted into Kirkwall harbour at 5.30pm.

The Stromness lifeboat attended the fishing vessel Arkhangel at 4pm on Saturday after the vessel fouled her propeller 20 miles off Noup Head in Westray. The stricken trawler was towed back to Pierowall.

Meanwhile, a yacht with steering problems in Hoy Sound was towed into Stromness on Saturday afternoon by the creel boat, Merlin, owned by William Sinclair.

The coastguard was called to two separate incidents within 15 minutes of each other on Saturday.

Just after 10.30am passenger ferry Pentland Venture called the coastguard after spotting a capsized kayak in the Pentland Firth. The kayak, however, had drifted out to sea unaccompanied.

Fifteen minutes later, the fishing vessel, Audacious, ran aground at the Ness of Quoys, two miles west of John O' Groats.

Thurso lifeboat attended and had successfully refloated the vessel by 10.30pm.

Police inquiries are continuing this morning after the death of a Stromness man in a fire on Saturday morning.

52-year-old Harvey Sinclair was found dead in his home, Millhouse, on the outskirts of Stromness, on Saturday morning. Mr Sinclair's 86-year-old father escaped the fire after being alerted by a smoke alarm.

Fire applicances from Kirkwall and Stromness attended the blaze, which is understood to have begun as a chip pan fire in the kitchen.

Kirkwall football club Hotspurs lifted their second trophy of the season on Saturday night after winning the Challenge Shield.

Hotspurs beat Rovers 5-1 in the game a Pickaquoy.

As volumes of junk mail, spam and unsolicited telephone calls continues to grow, Orkney Islands Council has issued a set of guidelines which could help stem the flow.

The guidelines were issued after number of people contacted the OIC's Trading Standards department seeking advice on stopping unsolicited phone calls or reducing the amount of junk mail received.

Click here for OIC guidelines.